Ingestible capsules are well-known in the prior art. Such capsules are generally small pill-like devices that can be ingested or swallowed by a patient. It is known that such capsules may include one or more sensors for determining physiological parameters of the gastrointestinal tract, such as sensors for detecting temperature, pH and pressure.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US2004/0122315 discloses multiple individual ingestible medical payload carrying capsules having the ability to wirelessly communicate among themselves.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,627,206 discloses a method and apparatus for treating obesity with individual space-filling portions having a magnetic insert that are used to form a space-filling polyhedron or other space-filling shape in the stomach of a patient.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has tested the use of permanent magnets to connect different modules in the stomach. Testing was conducted to determine how well modules linked together by monitoring changes to the field of each magnet.
It is also known that certain physiological parameters may be associated with regions of the gastrointestinal tract. For example, a 1988 article entitled “Measurement of Gastrointestinal pH Profiles in Normal Ambulant Human Subjects” discloses pH measurements recorded by a capsule passing through the gastrointestinal tract. It is known that pH has been correlated with transitions from the stomach to the small bowel (gastric emptying) and from the distal small bowel to the colon (ileo-caecal junction).